Forever Young
by felines
Summary: We've had our differences, but know that in my heart you'll always remain, forever young. -—RoseScorpius, fifty drabbles, through all years, in their ups and downs
1. Chapter 1

**First thing written in months! For the OTP Boot Camp on HPFC, where I am to write fifty fics of my OTP. Hopefully this will help me get my muse back for my Scorrose multichaps. This fic's title and description, though not directly from the song "Forever Young", were highly inspired by it, which does not belong to me. Neither does Harry Potter, for that matter.**

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[**acrid **lemonade]

She has a predilection for acrid lemonade. Maybe it's homage to her brazen personality – but he suspects it's more homage to the losses she's experienced. Losing Hugo to rogue Dark Wizards was only the straw that broke the camel's back. Miscarrying the baby, he knows, was the first strike.

_Punish yourself because the world hasn't punished you enough. _What a funny philosophy, he muses. It occurs to him more and more often these days that her mind works in such strange ways. On some of the really bad days he muses that he ought to be _doing_ something, instead of just contemplating on how interestingly Rose's mind works these days.

But it's Rose, and Scorpius knows she's a getting-back-upper, and that if there's one thing she's possessive of, even more than her sanity, it's her independence. Her fierce sense of independence is what keeps her going, and if there's anybody who's going to be encroaching on the one thing she values the most, he can be sure it won't be him.

(To an outsider, he would be considered a failure of a husband. But to her he's just what she needs.)

So when she asks for lemonade with no sugar, lemonade so bitter it would bring tears to any child, he complies, because even if he doesn't understand her mind sometimes, he knows that deep down, she probably knows what she's doing.

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**fin** – please do not favorite/alert without reviewing, thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

[Gosh, I was going to try and update this daily. Well, anything's better than nothing, right? For future reference, the word in bold is the prompt from the challenge.]

[Rose is **battered**]

Rose is battered.

Scorpius has slept on the couch every single night for the past two weeks because Rose writhes and screams so much in her sleep. The nightmares haunt her and taunt her, almost as though to snatch away one of the only times she could know peace – during her sleep – and turn it into a horror more vivid than reality.

That may be why she has developed a penchant for early mornings. The quiet allows her to calm down, and she loves to gaze around to see the world waking up. During these mornings she heals from nightmares encountered during the night.

In the morning the golden sunlight dances on her pale freckled skin and lights up the veins on the underside of her arm, bringing out the breathtaking blue of her blood. In the morning she walks with an angelic gait, with a light and peaceful tread. In the morning she sits outside in the sun, allowing herself to relax her joints and close her eyes and see not monsters behind her eyelids but the iridescent sunlight filtering in.

Rose is battered, but during the morning Scorpius is reminded of why he loves her.

[**fin** – please do not favorite/alert without reviewing, thanks!]


	3. Chapter 3

[Finally, a timely update! I was actually inspired to write this chapter after seeing a few flower bouquets while I was walking through the grocery store.]

[she's **fascinated** with lilies]

The florist eyed the bouquet of lilies skeptically. "We don't usually have handsome young guys such as yourself purchase lilies..." He trailed off as he checked Scorpius out and took his Muggle cash.

"She's fascinated with lilies," Scorpius explained. "Roses are too much of a cliché for her. Her name's Rose."

"Ah. Sounds like an interesting girl. All the girls I've ever dated were too banal and unoriginal. You on your way for a date?" The florist – his name tag said Dave – asked Scorpius, taking note of the formality of his attire, with a crisp, white shirt, complemented with navy dress pants, and even leather shoes.

"I guess you could call it that..."

Dave raised his eyebrows. "Trouble in paradise?" He jokes, as he finishes storing away the cash and the receipt starts printing.

"Well, she kind of hates me."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Something about me not understanding her after her brother died and me being too boring and not letting her drink her life away. Oh, and her brother died on the job and she's in the exact same field of work and somehow or other she thinks I'm being unreasonable when I worry about her getting into trouble as well."

Dave shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you mate. Good luck tonight though – you'll need it." Scorpius nodded, and grabbed the floral bunch.

"Thanks. You can keep the receipt."

**[fin – **please don't favorite/alert without reviewing, thanks!]


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Not all of these drabbles follow each other directly in terms of time, but all of these drabbles are in the same universe, and all coming from my most recent headcanon for Rose and Scorpius. This drabble, though, is a direct continuation of the last drabble.**

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[she gladly jumps **into the fire**]

She tells herself that she'll have just one beer in order to take a breath after the long day, but quickly that one beer turns into two, three, four, and eventually she starts on the wine, and then the whiskey too.

Soon the world looks as though it's been set ablaze and Rose, having lost all inhibition, gladly jumps into the fire – how marvelous it is to just fly through the world, free of care, young, beautiful, and incandescent! How amazing it is to not care about upcoming deadlines and the one month anniversary of her brother's death tomorrow and Scorpius getting mad at her yet again for drinking! Rose isn't so sure about anything anymore, but she knows that reality is bad, but these feelings are good.

When Scorpius discovers her an hour later, inebriated as hell and exhausted, Rose is scared that he'll grow angry at her again, like he has the past two times she's been found passed out after a night of drinking. But he just sighs and lets her lay her head on his lap.

"When are you going to realize that you don't need cheap party tricks to feel happy?" He asks as he passes a brilliant bouquet of orange lilies, her favorites, to her, and presses his lips to her forehead.

–

When Rose wakes up in the morning, she's still clutching the lilies, and in the golden morning sunlight streaming through the glass door, the flowers light up like flames.

She smiles for the first time in a month, and even when she remembers what day it is, she still feels calm.

Not healed, but getting better.

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**fin – **please don't favorite/alert without reviewing, thanks!


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